Iridium
by Tamberlin3
Summary: The war is over and the ninjas can finally go on with their lives as Masashi Kishimoto intended. However, what if fate or the cosmos or whatever you want to call it had something different in mind. This is really an attempt to link all of my favorite character stories in a way that makes sense... hopefully.
**I do not own Naruto... sadly.**

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KONOHA

May 2 at 3:00 PM

"You gonna pick in this century?" Tenten asked, looking up at the tall imposing figure outside her humble little kiosk. After the war had ended, Tenten had opted to start making her own weapons and selling them. She was still getting started, so her collection was quite small - and it also didn't help that business wasn't thriving in a world that was just becoming peaceful. Still, with being located in a ninja village, she'd get the occasional weapons collector or gift-buyer - like the ninja in front of her.

"Stop being troublesome and let me take my time. You have to be somewhere?" came the shadow user's reply.

"No, but I'd rather not look at your face all day!" came the childish retort.

Shikamaru Nara gave the woman a hard glare, "Well tough…"

Tenten sat on her raggedy stool with her arms crossed over her chest, "It's not like I have a huge inventory. I'm beginning to think you're being sarcastic in your actions. It's hurting my feelings."

"Bite me…"

She rolled her eyes, "You wish!"

Two more minutes passed of him carefully scrutinizing every detail of every weapons in the shop. Just when Tenten thought it would never end, he held out two perfectly crafted sai emblazoned with the Hidden Leaf symbol. "I'd like these."

After breathing a sigh of relief and whispering 'finally', Tenten grabbed the two sai and started boxing them up. "You never told me who these were for."

Shikamaru raised a brow, "I wasn't aware I had to indulge in you being nosy."

She ignored his insult. "Well…" she waited.

"They're for Temari if you must know."

"E-excuse me?" Tenten stopped what she was doing. "Please tell me I heard incorrectly, because I know you didn't just walk into my shop to buy my weapons so you could gift them to the woman who defeated me."

"I thought you were over that."

She started taking the sai back out of the box and onto the counter, "No… nuh uh… no way."

"I'll pay you double your asking price for those," he sighed.

"Fat… chance," she glared. "Besides, why these weapons?"

"Because, as much as I'm pained to say it, you've garnered quite the reputation for quality and tastefully designed weapons. These weapons are Temari's dream and you're the best at making them."

"Oh," she smiled. "Look at that! A compliment from the recliner." She smirked at her nickname for him. She knew it was terribly childish and horrible, but despite that, she still thought it was clever. Sakura had asked once why she called him that...

 _"Lazy boy… recliner… get it!"_

Needles to say, Shikamaru was not amused… neither was anyone else for that matter.

"That's STILL not funny."

"I think it is," she grinned. "So spill. Tell me why you need the weapons - don't give me that "Temari wants them" jazz - and I might - JUST MIGHT - acquiesce."

"I'm planning on proposing."

Tenten's eyes widened in shock and then confusion, "To her?!"

"Yes, now give me the weapons."

"May Kami bless your soul." She decided that was a good enough answer and - not at all out of the goodness of her heart, rather pity - she decided to not take him up on his offer to pay double the asking price. She just promptly re-wrapped the weapons and handed them to him, all the while mumbling a prayer. It was a miracle that Temari and Shikamaru lasted this long.

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KONOHA

MAY 3 at 2:00 AM

Tenten's closed eyes winced as she heard the doorbell from upstairs. Her strategy was to just ignore it, but the pounding that continued was just too loud to bear. With a growl that rivaled that of the Kyuubi, she pushed off of her mattress and slipped on her sandals.

"This better be good…"

The beyond pissed ninja stomped down the stairs, grasped the front door knob and yanked it open, "What do you want?!" she yelled.

On the other side, swayed a very drunk Shikamaru holding the weapons that he had bought earlier.

"Nara," she growled.

"I w- **hic** -ant to return th-theesh. **Hic**."

She crossed her arms glared at him before her eyes darted to the unwrapped sai in his hands. She raised an eyebrow and took a deep breath, trying to calm herself, "At 2:00 in the morning?"

"Yesh," he swayed. "I **hic** want my m-money b- **hic** -back."

Tenten's eye twitched in annoyance and she felt an a headache behind her eyes coming on. In order to make it subside, she pinched her fingers to the bridge of her nose but unfortunately, it was still there - as was the Nara.

"Why don't you go back home and come back in the morning," she said in her calmest voice possible - which had to be a miracle at this point.

"That w- **hic** -would be trouble- **hic** -some," he made his way to step into her house, but had been shuffling his feet and tripped on whatever that metal strip on the floor under the doorframe was. Tenten had just turned back around, hoping to push him out of her apartment, when the drunken ninja grabbed onto her arm in an attempt to catch his balance.

Horrible attempt.

Stupid attempt really.

Tenten mentally cursed her luck as she found herself pinned to her foyer floor with a drunk on her chest.

 _Wait, what?_

She looked down at Shikamaru who was nuzzling his cheek into her chest with an even stranger look on his face. She glanced to the left where the sai lay forgotten on the floor and cursed yet again that she hadn't the foresight to grab those weapons and seriously clobber him.

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 **There aren't enough Tenten/Shikamaru stories out there so here's my contribution. I'm not a huge Naruto fan but I do like some of the characters so I'm sorry if things are horribly out of character. What I do know of the show is what I've read on the Naruto wiki page.**

 **And forgive me for the 'recliner' pun? Joke? I always thought of Tenten as being a whimsical tomboy who just does her own thing and has an oddball sense of humor.**


End file.
